Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in this story except for Michael.

Prologue Part 1: Michael

Chapter 1: Loss and Gain

"Mother, Father," the boy of only 5 screamed as he watched the massacre unfold right in front of him. His parents, the master swordsman Sephiroth and the holy maiden Aeris were being slain by the massive beasts that erupted from the earth. Sephiroth, being the powerful and legendary warrior that he is, put up a tremendously valiant effort managing to slay many of the beasts with his massive blade, the Masamune. Aeris also put up an equally courageous effort in defending her family by chanting extremely rare and powerful spells by channeling them through her Princess Guard staff. But their efforts proved to bein vain as they were overwhelmed by the tribe of deadly monsters known as Weapons.

"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo," the young boy yelled out as a Weapon, much larger and moremenacing looking than the others, struck a fatal blow to his father overwhelming him and ultimately ending the life of one of the world's most powerful warriors. Upon seeing this Aries made up her mind to take Michael and run in fear that they also would not survive the next wave of beasts. She new this was a suicide attempt but she had to do something to save her only child. She picked up the young boy and ran until she hit the edge of a nearby cliff. She stood there looking back seeing as the beasts were gaining on her. She put her son down and kissed him on his forehead and whispered a gentle "I love you, Michael," before pushing him off the cliff.

"Mooooommmmmmy," he cried out before hitting the water below. Aeris then used the remaining amount of her magical power to unleash a massive explosion destroying the majority of the Weapons and sacrificing her own life to save the life of her son.

The next morning as Ryu, a Japanese martial artist in Shatokan Karate, was training along the beach found Michael unconscious and soaking wet. He picked up the boy and took him back to his home which also served as his dojo. When Michael awoke he was confused and to where he was. Where am I? he thought getting up from the cot he was placed on and the first thing he noticed was that he was wearing a white karate uniform. He opened the old school Japanese doors and saw a man training in the next room. As he walked in the room the man spoke.

"Ah… you're finally awake; you've been out cold for two days," Ryu said turning around to face the boy. "My names Ryu what's your name?"

"Michael… where's my mommy and daddy," the boy asked looking around. Then suddenly they heard massive footsteps roar through out the dojo. They both ran outside to see a Weapon that somehow managed to survive Aeris's final attack and track down the boy. Upon seeing the monstrous creature all the memories of his parent's death rushed back to him and he fell to his knees in tears. Ryu jumped in front of the boy in order to protect him, but knew that none of his martial arts techniques would help him defeat this gigantic creature… except one.

He spread his legs out in a wide stance and began to maneuver his arms in a circular motion until finally resting them to his right side cupping his hands as to form something. Michael was now watching the man in despair knowing that whatever he was about to do was going to be useless against this powerful creature. Inside the martial artists hands began to gather a large amount of his spiritual energy until his body and the area around it began to glow a crystal blue. The rocks around him began to slowly rise in the air and the ground under his feet began to crack. Ryu then raised his head to the beast and announced "Farewell beast… HADOUKEN," before thrusting his hands upward toward the beast and releasing the blast at the Weapons abdomen. Michael stared up at the action in amazement with his mouth agape and eyes wide. The blast hit the beast head on and was burrowing its way into the beast body before erupting through it and into the distance. The monster roared in pain as it neared death and collapsed in the yard of the dojo.

"Are you alright?" Ryu asked getting up from his slightly squatted stance.

"Yeah," Michael said with tears still streaming from his eyes. Just then the Weapon rose and with the last of its energy knocked Ryu back into a nearby tree immobilizing him. It then lunged at Michael and opened its mouth to swallow him whole.

"MICAEL, WATCH OUT," Ryu yelled to Michael. But the warning fell on deaf ears as Michael's body began to glow a black and gold color and he screamed causing an enormously massive explosion that utterly destroyed the monster and the surrounding area. Michael then fell unconscious in the crater he had just created. Ryu watched the whole thing in complete horror, he had never seen anything like that before, This boy posses and incredible amount of energy and not just spirit energy a dark, evil energy as well, he thought to himself as he recovered and took Michael back into the dojo. Ryu though that whatever just happened to Michael resembled the Dark Hadou, and decided to see what the boy knew of this mysterious power. When Michael awoke Ryu bombarded him with questions about his parents and if he remembered anything about what had happened earlier. Michael couldn't remember anything after the Weapon lunged at him but he did answer all of Ryu's other questions. He doesn't even remember killing that monster and destroying half of the area in front of my dojo, then maybe I shouldn't say anything he's just a child after all, Ryu thought to himself while Michael explained.

Upon hearing that Sephiroth was his father the hair on the back of Ryu's neck stood on end. He had heard about him before, the former general of SOLDIER, a military branch under the Shin-Ra organization. They had even paid him a visit once and tried to recruit him into their ranks, but Ryu quickly turned them down.

"Wow, to think Sephiroth killed, how did it happened" Ryu asked curiously. Michael then attempted to explain the ordeal that took place only a couple of days ago as best he could; trying his hardest to fight back the tears but failing miserably. After he finished Ryu was extremely sad for the boy but feeling for him as well seeing as Ryu was also orphaned at a young age. Michael had no other relatives to go to and he wouldn't last long out there on his own so Ryu adopted the boy taking him in as his apprentice. Over the years Michael regarded Ryu as his master and a second father. From time to time Weapons would come and try to destroy the boy, but with his new training and Ryu at his side they were taken care of without to much problem, especially because they weren't in the massive numbers they were in when they attacked Michael and his parents.

He was a prodigy in the Shatokan arts and caught on extremely quickly. By the time he was 8 he was a master fighter and could perform the Hadouken technique much more quickly than any of his predecessors, I guess you could chalk it up to good genes. When Michael turned 12 he decided he wanted to leave the dojo so that he could broaden his horizons and search for his place in the world as well as investigate the Weapons. He headed for a city called Midgar, he had heard somewhere that they had an extremely large library and that he could read about anything there. He desperately wanted to research the Weapons, and why they seemed to be trying to kill him.

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